Path of the Undying One
The Path of the Undying One is a cult dedicated to the summoning of Vecna. Their goals are the following: # Summon Vecna so that he may conquer the world # Create an undead army to assist Vecna # Retrieve the Hand of Vecna, the Eye of Vecna, and other such artifacts to empower Vecna Hierarchy of the Cult The Leader The Undying One is a vampire lord that uses mirrors to spy on people and portal from place to place. He sometimes resides in a deep underground cavern next to an underground lake covered with ice mirrors, which is a spy outpost a day north of Vigil. He is called the Undying One, because he says that he died and clawed his way back to life by the strength of his willpower, becoming an immortal vampire in the process. His true name is unknown, but his followers refer to him as the Undying One, the Eternal Return, and Dominus Immortis. For new recruits into the Path, he administers the Unholy Sacrament, which not only chops their left hand off but will bind their blood to him, so he will always know exactly where they are and can track down traitors as needed. This has the added benefit of making cultists unmistakable and beholden to the cult, so they are disinclined to leave. The Lieutenants There are three lieutenants who specialize in different types of undead. Lord Sithis is the most generic necromancer, specializing in animated corpses. He can summon armies of skeletons and zombies out of his Cloak of Bones, which looks like a black robe with a woven spine pattern. He is always eager to add new bodies to his Cloak. He is a skeletal man with deep set red eyes and hollowed cheeks. He leads the Bones of Vecna. Lord Traya specializes in summoning and binding dead spirits. They summon shadows, ghosts, and other phantasmal beings. They are the loremaster of the cult and summon spirits and research dark lore in order to find Vecna and his artifacts. Their gender is unclear, as they wear a dark robe with long sleeves and a hood that hides the form, and they speak in an echoey whisper. They lead the Shadows of Vecna. Lord Lyto specializes in the underlying magics in life, death, and undeath, as well as how to control them. He is the more abstract magician, as he doesn't summon undead. Rather, he affects creatures with necrotic blasts, mind control, and life theft. He is a slick man with with smoothed back brown hair, a hooked hose, and a pointed goatee. He has a disarmingly cheery smile and likes to manipulate people. He leads the Fingers of Vecna. The Bones of Vecna The side of the cult that focuses on amassing dead bodies and animating them into a massive undead army The Shadows of Vecna The side of the cult that focuses on summoning spirits and searching the bowels of the world in order to amass dark knowledge and find the artifacts of Vecna The Fingers of Vecna The recruitment side of the cult that focuses on manipulating people into joining the cult and never letting them leave. One member of the Fingers is a woman named Vasha, who is probably a vampire (she keeps blood in a fridge), and is the individual in charge of questioning new recruits and determining their fitness.